Frequently Asked Questions

What is U.S. electricity generation by energy source?

In 2018, about 4,178 billion kilowatthours (kWh) (or 4.18 trillion kWh) of electricity were generated at utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the United States.1 About 63% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases). About 20% was from nuclear energy, and about 17% was from renewable energy sources. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that an additional 30 billion kWh of electricity generation was from small-scale solar photovoltaic systems in 2018.2

U.S. electricity generation by source, amount, and share of total in 20181

Energy source

Billion kWh

Share of total

Total - all sources

4,178

Fossil fuels (total)

2,651

63.5%

Natural gas

1,468

35.1%

Coal

1,146

27.4%

Petroleum (total)

25

0.6%

Petroleum liquids

16

0.4%

Petroleum coke

9

0.2%

Other gases

12

0.3%

Nuclear

807

19.3%

Renewables (total)

713

17.1%

Hydropower

292

7.0%

Wind

275

6.6%

Biomass (total)

63

1.5%

Wood

41

1.0%

Landfill gas

11

0.3%

Municipal solid waste (biogenic)

7

0.2%

Other biomass waste

3

0.1%

Solar (total)

67

1.6%

Photovoltaic

63

1.5%

Solar thermal

4

0.1%

Geothermal

17

0.4%

Pumped storage hydropower3

-6

-0.1%

Other sources

13

0.3%

1 Includes utility-scale electricity generation, which is electricity generation from power plants with at least one megawatt (or 1,000 kilowatts) of total electricity generating capacity.2 Small-scale solar photovoltaic systems are electricity generators with less than one megawatt of electricity generating capacity that are usually at or near the location where the electricity is consumed. Most small-scale solar photovoltaic systems are installed on building rooftops. 3Pumped storage hydroelectricity generation is negative because most pumped storage electricity generation facilities use more electricity than they produce on an annual basis. Most pumped storage systems use fossil fuels or nuclear energy for pumping water to the storage component of the system.